Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Challenges and Change

A few weeks ago I tried an experiment. I set up an autoresponder on Twitter for the new people that were following me. I normally don't like autoresponders, but I thought I would give one a try and see if I could engage some people in conversation.

Basically, my autoresponder message asks all new followers what one thing could they change about their business to make the most impact.

The first thing I learned is that responses to autoresponders is incredibly low. I think I maybe got about 3 replies out of every 20 or 30 people. But I did learn some interesting things about what challenges entrepreneurs in the community.

Sales - Several people wished for more sales. I've heard the old expression "There are few problems that more sales can't fix" and that likely applies here. Basically, if you had more sales than you knew what to do with, you likely have the accompanying revenue stream that you can use to purchase help if you need it. But for most of these folks, I have tried to engage on whether or not they had a plan to address more sales. The good thing was that most did whether a combination of new marketing tactics additional reaching out to potential customers or something else.

Marketing - Several others thought that more marketing would help; whether an unlimited budget which we know is fantasy-land or just an expanded reach for their marketing message. Again, most had a good plan but several could use some additional avenues. Perhaps doing joint venture marketing or trying to capitalize on some opportunities that might be out there. Enough people really struggle with marketing, and one thing I saw that they had in common was a hyper-focus on a single-channel of marketing. I fall in that trap, too, sometimes, whether trying to get more followers on Twitter, neglecting Facebook, etc., or just a focus on social media alone. Think about where you spend your marketing focus and try to add at least one new channel to it.

Hiring - The other major struggle entrepreneurs comments pointed to was a difficulty in hiring the right people. I've done some posts of late on some specific hiring scenarios, but some comments I engaged with lead me to believe that some general overviews might be helpful. Hiring challenges even the best managers, so that new entrepreneurs find it difficult does not surprise me.

As far as this experiment goes, I'll keep it going. I might even add a new question into the mix for some. If you haven't had a chance to answer, go follow me on Twitter then send me a reply to your incoming direct message.